Anniversary
Well, today is my 1 year anniversary as a Full Time Employee (FTE) at Microsoft, which also happens to the Indian holiday of Gandhi Jayanti (commemorating the birth of Mahatma Ghandi), and is the International Day of Non-Violence. In other words, it's a good day :)
Scott Hanselman has a great write-up of his first few weeks at Microsoft, and his impressions complement mine (I had a bit longer to drink the kool-aid). Scott mentions "emptying the ocean with a teaspoon", and I have heard of drinking from a firehose, but the concept is the same. When you are changing the world, there is significantly more in the "to do" pile than there are hours in the day. I wouldn't have it any other way ;)
So what have I done in the last year? In no particular order:
- Spent a day presenting on Windows Vista to Microsoft Partners in New York
- Kicked off and led several new business initiatives on my team
- Bought a House
- Traveled to France and India to work with Managers in Europe and India on the details of implementing a Global strategy
- Missed my 10-year High School Reunion on the above trip
- Tried Foie Gras and Wine (I don't like either)
- Met my favorite bloggers (Keith Combs, CC Hameed, Raymond Chen, and Michael Kaplan)
- Met with some INCREDIBLY passionate, talented and intelligent Microsoft Partners from ClearPointe and ADXStudio, as well several others at Worldwide Partner Conference
- Took up photography as a hobby
- Started running
- Stopped running
- Started blogging
- Had a post or two noted by Scoble
- Learned to not write April Fool's posts that cause lots of phone calls to certain product teams within Microsoft
- Joined Facebook
- Absorbed knowledge from my co-workers like a sponge
- Served in the Military
- Worked on my Degree from WSU
- Got addicted to Lost
- Listened to a bunch of artists you have never heard of on Pandora
- Bought a MacBook Pro
- Loaded Vista on my MBP, as well as on my sister's
- Saw Bill Gates' last appearance at the Company Meeting
- Watched some plays by the best actor in the world
- Visited Yale
- Read some great books, including Beyond Fear and The Art of Intrusion
- Learned Computer Forensics
- Taught my daughter chess
All-in-all, it was a very good year, and I love working for Microsoft even more than I did a year ago. Here's to the next one!